NEWS IN BRIEF

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Grain handler merges with Louisiana firm

A south Arkansas grain handling company, Bayou Grain & Chemical Corp., has merged with Big River Rice & Grain, a company formed earlier this year when Kansas City, Kan.-based Agspring combined two northeast Louisiana grain-handling companies it acquired.

With 24 full-time employees, Bayou Grain handles rice, corn and soybeans at locations in Parkdale, Eudora and Portland in Ashley and Chicot counties. Its facilities have combined storage capacity of more than 10 million bushels.

The company also owns and operates Bayou Grain Transport LLC, which has 15 full-time employees.

Bayou Grain officials expect the merger will allow it to expand while continuing to offer competitive pricing and services, according to a news release, which said all existing contracts will be honored.

Big River Rice & Grain was formed earlier this year when Agspring combined Tubbs Rice Dryers and Raley Brothers. Agspring is a private equity company formed last year to provide for the agricultural operations it acquires access to capital and expanded markets while retaining local control, Agspring founder and President Brad Clark said.

Arkansas bank list on ratios corrected

An article Tuesday listing six Arkansas banks with Texas ratios above 100 percent in the second quarter incorrectly included First Community Bank of Eastern Arkansas in Marion, which actually had a Texas ratio of about 11 percent.

The article should have included First Community Bank of Crawford County in Van Buren, which had a ratio of 105 percent.

A Texas ratio is the sum of nonperforming assets plus loans more than 90 days past due - excluding government loans covered by loss-sharing agreements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Syria, China figures boost index by 3.06

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 3.06 to 292.3 Tuesday.

“Stocks closed higher once again as investors responded optimistically to encouraging economic data from China while easing tensions over the Syrian crisis fueled further optimism,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.

Volume for the index was 20.7 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 27 on 09/11/2013